Robert G. Morrison

Associate Professor of Religion

Spring 2012

  • Introduction to the Study of Religion (REL 101)
  • Judaism Under Islam (REL 237)
  • Intermediate Iindependent Study in Religion (REL 291)
Phone 798-4237
Title Associate Professor
Department Religion
Work Location 32 Ashby House
E-Mail rgmorris@bowdoin.edu
Robert G. Morrison: Bowdoin College: Religion

Education

Columbia University: M.Phil., Ph.D.
Harvard University: A.M. and A.B.

Robert Morrison came to Bowdoin college in August, 2008.  His courses lie in the academic study of both Islam and Judaism, but address, in addition, comparative topics.  His research has focused on the role of science in Islamic and Jewish texts, as well as in the history of Islamic science.  Robert has contributed the chapters on Islamic astronomy to the New Cambridge History of Islam and the Cambridge History of Science.  He was previously a faculty member at Whitman College (in Walla Walla, WA) from 2001-8.

Selected Publications

Book

Islam and Science The Intellectual Career of Nizam al-Din al-Nisaburi Islam and Science The Intellectual Career of Nizam al-Din al-NisaburiThe Intellectual Career of Niẓām al-Dīn al-Nīsābūrī (Oxon, UK: Routledge, 2007); 301 + viii pp. Awarded the 2009 World Prize for the Book of the Year of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Islamic studies.

Monograph-length Journal Article

“Quṭb al-Dīn al-Shīrāzī’s Hypotheses for Celestial Motions,” in Journal for the History of Arabic Science XIII (2005): 21-140

Peer Reviewed Articles

"Conceptions of the Soul in Abraham Ibn Ezra's Poetry"
Edebiyat XI (2000): 239-59


"The Portrayal of Nature in a Medieval Qur’an Commentary"
Studia Islamica XCIV (2002): 115-38

"The Response of Ottoman Religious Scholars to European Science"
Archivum Ottomanicum XXI (2003): 187-95

"The Role of Portrayals of Nature in Medieval Qur'an Commentaries”
Arabica LII (2005): 182-203

“The Solar Theory of Joseph Ibn Nahmias”
Arabic Sciences and Philosophy XV (2005): 75-108

“Science and Theodicy in Q 2:6/7,” in Jitse M. van der Meer and Scott Mandelbrote (eds.): Nature and Scripture in the Abrahamic Religions (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 2008)

“Discussions of Astrology in Early Tafsīr,” Journal of Qur’ānic Studies XI (2009): 49-71

“Islamic Astronomy and Astrology,” in Robert Irwin (ed.) New Cambridge History of Islam (Cambridge University Press, 2010), vol. 4: pp. 589-613

“Islamic Astronomy and Cosmology,” in David Lindberg and Michael Shank (eds.): Cambridge History of Science, vol. 5 (Cambridge University Press, 2011): 109-138

“An Astronomical Treatise by Mūsā Jālīnūs alias Moses Galeano,” Aleph: Historical Studies in Science and Judaism X/2 (2011): 315-53

Links:

Academic Spotlight: Bowdoin Islamicist Wins Top Iranian Book Prize

Academic Spotlight: New Faculty Scholar Deepens Study of Islam, Judaism